DOES MARIJUANA HAVE HEALING PROPERTIES?

DU Pot Debates Spark Up Yesterday

The University of Denver yesterday kicked off a series of debates on
marijuana with a discussion of the potential medical benefits N and
harms N of the drug.

Alice P. Mead, a spokeswoman for a British research company that
develops a medical spray from marijuana, argued that the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) should regulate marijuana if doctors are
recommending it to patients. She said the FDA process has been
carefully crafted for more than 100 years, and while not foolproof,
gives medical professionals the information on the purity, potency
and identity of a product.

"I'm pro the proper testing and standardization of medical products
before they're widely distributed to seriously ill patients," she said.

In yesterday's discussion, Mead squared off against Sunil Aggarwal, a
fourth-year medical student at the University of Washington. Aggarwal
argued that the medical community has extensive knowledge about the
400-plus chemicals in marijuana. More than 17,500 research papers
and articles on marijuana or its properties came out in 2008 alone, he said.

He added that because marijuana is federally classified as a schedule
I drug N meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no legitimate
medical use N it's unlikely that the FDA would regulate the drug.

But Mead said there is a precedent for the FDA approving a formulated
product derived from a scheduled I drug; Marinol, which is primarily
comprised of THC and helps stimulate HIV/AIDS patients' appetites, is
a scheduled III drug even though it has the major psychoactive
ingredient in marijuana.

Healing properties

Aggarwal is convinced of the healing properties of marijuana. There
is no evidence linking smoked marijuana to cancer, and a published
study in peer-review literature found that cannabinoids N the active
ingredients in marijuana N reduced the size of brain tumors, he said.

Mead believes there are certain non-psychoactive cannabinoids in
marijuana that have healing properties, though most of them have been
phased out as marijuana has become a recreational drug. Sativex, the
drug her company N GW Pharmaceuticals N makes is a cannabis extract
containing THC and Cannabidiol, a part of marijuana that allegedly
carries medicinal benefits without the possible psychoactive
properties of THC. The clinical spray is approved in Canada to treat
pain and multiple sclerosis.

Because the THC content varies wildly for each marijuana plant and
there are multiple ways to ingest the drug, Mead believes the
cannabinoids would need to be extracted from the marijuana in order
to be regulated by the FDA. But she sees tremendous potential
benefits if the FDA regulated marijuana.

For one, the FDA process would garner the data necessary for
marijuana products to become broadly accepted as true modern
medications. Additionally, the current system in place in states like
Colorado and California in which patients are ingesting
non-FDA-approved marijuana is possibly leading to sick patients
ingesting a high amount of undetected pesticides, fungi and bacteria.
Marijuana samples taken from select California dispensaries found the
drug had a level of pesticides that was 170 times higher than herbal
products, she said.

Without the FDA process, untrained dispensary owners who are not
required to have a background in medicine end up making a variety of
claims for their products that may or may not be true, Mead said.
Mead's experiences in California have led her to believe that many of
the doctors recommending medical marijuana to patients do not always
have the patient's health in mind.

But Aggarwal argued that doctors have historically recommended drugs
on a see-if-it-works basis. And with many seriously ill patients
reporting a positive reaction to medicinal marijuana, he sees
validity in having doctors recommend the drug to patients.

Aggarwal agreed with Mead that more research is needed on marijuana,
saying the last time a major scientist got access to marijuana was in
the early 1940s. The resulting report from the New York Academy of
Medicine contradicted claims that marijuana results in insanity,
assists in criminal behavior, is physically addictive and is a
"gateway drug" to harder drugs. The report was blasted and
discredited by anti-marijuana lawmakers.

Mead said the DEA has become increasingly receptive towards allowing
legitimate researchers to study marijuana in recent years. She added
that there is research currently being done in Europe on marijuana
that could prove beneficial.

"Doing evidence-based research takes time," she said. "It is
happening, it's just that it's not happening as quickly as we'd all like."

The "Objective Discussion on Medical Marijuana" continues today at
noon at the DU Strum College of Law. The final debate is being held
tomorrow and will pit prominent medical marijuana attorney Rob Corry
against Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.